


humanity

by sinnamonrolls



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Body Horror, Gen, Gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-07
Updated: 2016-10-07
Packaged: 2018-08-20 03:32:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8234587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinnamonrolls/pseuds/sinnamonrolls
Summary: sam tries to forget about the tragedies from the past two years.





	

Sam remembered a lot about the Blackwood Winter Getaway. Of course, it had not even been one month yet, but Sam was the type of person to forget what she had for breakfast that morning. She was surprised she hadn’t forgotten much about the trip, and although her wish was generally to remember all of the things she forgot, she yearned to push these memories into the darkest parts of her conscious and carry on with her life. Yet, she remembered.

She remembered the way the February air and frigid cold chilled her to the core, even through the four layers of clothing that she wore. It was nice, though. A blizzard arrived almost as soon as she and her friends had, as if the harsh clouds had followed them all the way up the mountain. Now, the friends could have snowball fights and admire the beautiful crystals with the mountain backdrop in the distance.

She remembered the ache in her heart when she saw all of her friends whom she had not seen in a year (sure, she may have talked to them on the phone, but does that really compare to talking to someone face to face?). Although she was still furious about the events of last year’s trip, she found it in her heart to forgive them. These were her friends, after all, and she wanted to believe that their prank did not come out of a place of ill-will. 

She remembered how she felt when she saw Josh. The two talked on the phone frequently about whatever the pleased, from Hannah and Beth to “How unbelievably cool does this new slasher film look? We should go see it so many times we can recite the dialogue by heart.” How she breathed with him as his sharp pants crackled over the receiver. How they whispered jokes and stories through the night, until the Sun peaked its face from behind the horizon as it ascended into the sky. How she felt a stronger between the two of them in that year than she had during their whole friendship

She remembered the fear clawing at her insides as she ran towel-clad through the lodge, desperate to escape the masked figure chasing her. How hard to was to conceal her heavy breaths as she hid, just hoping she wouldn’t get caught. How she prayed that wherever her other friends were, they were safe. How she silently mourned Josh, the person whom she dared to call her best friend. How relieved she felt when she realized that her hiding probably saved her life.

She remembered all of the emotions she felt when she saw Josh in that outfit. The relief that goddamn, Josh is okay. The nausea, when she realized Josh was the one who had been torturing them this whole night. The sorrow, when she heard the pain and anger in Josh’s voice. The hurt, because he had never once come to her with how he felt even though they had talked almost every day for the past year. - because god dammit, if she could talk to him about her period cramps, he could talk to her about that. The feeling that everything that happened between the two of them in the past year didn’t matter; all of it was just a spec of insignificant dust floating in the atmosphere. The understanding that it probably wrecked Josh that he drank too much and passed out while his sisters ran into the forest and never came back, and that he allowed this to happen (even though in reality, there was nothing he could have done). The forgiveness.

She remembered the feeling of the cave’s jagged rocks beneath her fingertips, and the cold blood from the cuts on her face slipping down her cheeks and staining her lips, leaving a salty taste in her mouth. The cold, murky waters soaking through her clothes and dirtying her skin to the point where it was pointless for her to have taken a bath earlier that night. The eerie cracks of falling stones that sounded like the crack of Beth’s back when she fell to her death. 

She also remembered leaving Josh with Mike in the mines. She left two men in the caves, but only one returned.

Her intentions were pure, of course. Josh was in no condition to be rock-climbing, and Mike had navigated his way here perfectly fine without doing so. It seemed like the option that made the most sense at the time, and she trusted Mike enough to take care of him despite the events of the night. Although it wasn’t Mike’s fault that Josh was snatched and dragged by Hannah – rather, a ravenous beast who just so happened to have been Hannah in another life – she desperately wanted to blame him.

It’s his fault for not distracting the Wendigo to let Josh get away! It’s his fault for not making sure the coast was clear for them to cross the river! It’s his fault for not making sure Josh was close the entire time!

That wasn’t entirely fair to Mike. It was selfish of her to think that in the face of danger, most normal people wouldn’t hide but would rather pull a metaphorical sword from the stone and slay the retched beast to save the fair maiden (or Josh, in this case). It was selfish of her to put the blame on Mike when she knew that he would step up to Hannah in a heartbeat if it meant saving Josh, especially when Mike wasn’t even sure as to whether or not Josh was still alive.

She couldn’t blame Mike because he did all that he could.

She couldn’t help but feel guilt in the pit of her stomach whenever she thought back to that night. It wasn’t her fault – it wasn’t anyone’s – yet she felt like it was. Although she didn’t hold the gun to Josh’s head and pull the trigger, she might as well have. It was her idea to separate from Mike and Josh in the first place. Maybe if she stayed with them… Maybe if she went the long way with them… Maybe if she helped Josh up the steep ledges… Not only that, but she stayed at the lodge against her better judgement, when she thought it was possible that he survived the attack. Even if there was no possible way Josh was alive, at least making the effort to actively search for him would’ve relieved the burden just a little bit. Not only did she have to live with separating from Mike and Josh and probably getting Josh killed or kidnapped, but the fact that she could have gone out to the mines to look for him and chose not to.

One overwhelming question still plagued her no matter how hard she tries to forget it: What became of Josh?

She wondered if he was buried in a ditch similar to the one she and Mike found Beth in. She wondered if he became a creature of the night like Hannah, feasting on the bodies of lost hikers. She wondered if he somehow escaped the mines, climbed down the mountain, hitched a ride to somewhere he’d never been, and started a new life free from the skeletons in his closet and the monsters under his bed.

She wondered if he was safe and if his eyes still glimmered with humanity.


End file.
